Well what do we have here? It’s a Sony VAIO 3D prototype hanging out on the show floor at this year’s IFA conference in Berlin. Sony has stated that they’re going to release a 3D VAIO notebook in Spring 2011, and this prototype, spotted by Engadget, gives usВ  the first idea of what it might look like. It’ll sport a 240Hz LCD screen and work with the Sony Bravia 3D shutter glasses thanks to a built-in IR blaster (unlike last year’s ASUS G51J 3D, which has an external module). The laptop on display had a 16-inch 16:9 screen, so it sounds like Sony is thinking big for its iteration of 3D.

Via Engadget

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In our hands-on with iTunes 10, we wondered if there was a reason for Facebook’s quick inclusion and exclusion from Ping since the social network launched yesterday.В Per AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, it turns out that it’s definitely the case: Apple pulled the plug on Facebook connectivity after the social networking site blocked Ping from accessing its API.

Typically, Facebook allows developers to freely access its API, but requires larger groups to enter an agreement on usage. Facebook and Apple had started negotiations, but hadn’t yet reached a final agreement.

Facebook still played a large role in the run-up to Ping–it was featured prominently in the screenshots during Apple’s press conference yesterday and immediately after iTunes 10 was made public, Ping still touted its ability to invite friends from Facebook.

Despite not having an agreement in place, Apple went ahead with plans to access Facebook’s API but the site blocked their requests. In response, Apple removed Facebook from Ping.В Both companies are still in talks, but we can only assume that the negotiation process must be pretty awkward right now.

Via AllThingsD

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When reviewing notebooks, we generally advise consumers that if a notebook’s temperature exceeds 100 degrees, you’ve got a problem. A more obvious sign, though, is when the computer starts melting.

That’s what happened to one too many Toshiba Satellite T-Series laptops. Both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada have announced they are recalling the Satellites T135, T135D, and ProT130 after receiving 129 reports of the cases melting and becoming misshapen. Although no injuries were reported, the situation obviously presents both an inconvenience and a fire hazard.

In its recall notice, Toshiba states that the problem could be caused by a faulty DC-In harness. Users can download aВ  BIOS update that will determine if this is the problem. If it is, external power will be cut off, to prevent further damage (meaning, users can’t charge their notebooks until the problem has been repaired). Customers will then have to call Toshiba for warranty support.

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In the wake of yesterday’s Apple event, in which Steve Jobs suggested Google’s daily activation numbers were inflated, prompting a terse response from Google, the research company Net Applications is weighing in with its own set of stats. Granted, studies of mobile market share come a dime a dozen, and often fail to take into account, say, the most recent product announcements. Those caveats aside, theВ  numbers suggest that iOS bests Android in both market share as well as mobile web browsing.

Interestingly, whereas the numbers showed that iOS devices had been trailing Android ones in market share, this began to shift around May of this year, accelerating in June, presumably when the iPhone 4 went on sale. (Perhaps, too, this shift includes the iPad’s rising momentum in late Spring). On the mobile web browsing side, Android always trailed iOS, but it seems that iOS gained an even bigger margin in that same May-June time frame. Again, the iPad’s strong sales, combined with the fact that the iPhone 4′s launch was, according to Apple, the strongest ever, could have something to do with it.

As we’ve said before, the balance of power between Android and iOS is tenuous, and the numbers are only part of the story. We’ll be curious to see how these numbers look at the end of the year, particularly when an onslaught of Android tablets will too be counted.

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When you look at the Libretto W105, you can’t help but think that you’re gazing at an ultraportable from the future. This limited-edition device, created to celebrate Toshiba’s 25th anniversary, pushes the envelope withВ  two 7-inch capacitive touchscreens and no less than six virtual keyboard choices. Toshiba also packs in some touch-friendly apps, including Bulletin Board (customizable desktops) and ReelTime (for finding files using auto-generated previews). You can even use the device as a digital book.

However, this 1.8-pound wonder can only do so much to cover up Windows 7′s inadequacies. Is the Libretto W105 innovative? Yup. Would we buy one? Check out the full review here.

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These days, touchscreens are practically mandatory when it comes to Android phones, which helps the Motorola Charm for T-Mobile stand out from the crowd. The 2.8-inch Android 2.1-based phone features a display and full QWERTY keyboard that’s similar to a BlackBerry. We were fans of the Charm’s low price tag and svelte form factor–it costs $74.99 and measures 3.9 x 2.7 x0.5 inches. The phone’s construction also earned equally high marks, as the keyboard and body both felt solidly constructed. When it came to actually using the phone, though, we were considerably more disappointed. The Charm’s display is a low-end 320 x 240-pixels, which results in less than stellar visuals. Plus, thanks to the phone’s meager 600-MHz processor, it performed sluggishly during moderate usage, which can pose some problems–in our review, we ran into lag when using the phone as a GPS navigator. Check out our full review of the Motorola Charm for more info.

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We already thought the HP ENVY 14 Beats Edition was a lean, mean, sound machine and now the deal of the day makes it a little cheaper to buy.

The HP ENVY 14 Beats Edition was made to put out great sound with Beats audio technology and an included pair of Beats Solo headphones. It comes standard with plenty of power too: there’s a Core i5 processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and a switchable ATI Graphics chips are responsible for processing all images sent to your computer?s display.
Learn Moregraphics card. В Comes in a sleek black aluminum frame with red back-lit accents. LogicBUY makes it all affordable by slashing $50 and adding free shipping, so click over and get it today.

Base Specs: Intel Core i5-450M 2.4GHz; 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics; 4GB DDR3 RAM; 500GB The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn MoreHard Drive; 14.5″ BrightView Infinity LED Display; Slot-load DVD Burner; HP TruVision HD Webcam + Dual microphones; Wireless-N + Bluetooth; HDMI Bundled Beats by Dr. Dre Solp Headphones From Monster with ControlTalk

Buy the HP ENVY 14 Beats edition via LogicBUY

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Realizing that sites such as Facebook aren’t going away, Apple is now beefing up music discovery capabilities in iTunes via its new social networking engine, called Ping.

Like Facebook, Ping will let iTunes users follow friends and artists’ news feeds and listening habits, and see when and where their favorite musicians are playing, among other things.

Now that Ping has been released, we went hands-on to see what it’s all about. Is Apple’s new music-centric social network going to be an instant classic, or a one-hit wonder?

iTunes 10 is easy enough to set up–you can download the program on Apple’s website and installation is the same as always. Everything is mostly unchanged–in particular, the album art browser integration that Jobs showed off cleans up the interface considerably.

Ping, which is nestled right next to the Store icon, is tied into your iTunes account, and when you open up the service for the first time, it’ll ask you to log in. After this, you’ll be walked through several steps to create your Ping profile, which includes choosing songs for the “Music I Like” sidebar: This displays up to 10 songs and works similarly to MySpace’s “Top Friends” feature.

Compared to Facebook’s Byzantine settings, Ping’s privacy controls are very basic and straightforward–you can choose to let others follow you (provided you approve them), or disallow any followers.

Like Facebook, the news feed is the centerpiece of Ping’s user experience. Here, you’ll see status updates from the people and artists that you follow. Items range from songs that users liked and videos to concert plans and recent purchases, all of which you can “like” and comment on.

Artist pages function similar to band pages on Myspace. On cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s page-he’s one of a handful of artists who had pages ready for Ping’s launch–you can see information such as photos and videos posted by him. Ma’s page, like other artist pages, shows information like status updates while he’s on tour, photos that he posted and concert listings. If you say that you plan on going, that information also shows up in your activity feed.

Right now, though, the biggest problems with Ping come down to numbers. There aren’t many artists or people who’ve jumped onto the Ping bandwagon and for a social network that’s built on connecting those two groups, that’s a major problem.

When we searched Ping, we couldn’t find pages for a number of major bands, such as Arcade Fire, Ke$ha, and LCD Soundsystem. Likewise, it’s a massive burden to simply try and find people to follow–the only way to add contacts is by manually inserting email addresses. No options exist for combing address books or other social networks to find contacts who also use Ping.

Despite being prominently featured in many of the promotional photos from yesterday’s conference, Facebook Connect also isn’t included in Ping, as of today. However, Cult of Mac did spot Facebook Connect in Ping, suggesting that Apple pulled Facebook out of Ping late in the game–Jobs told AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher that they couldn’t agree to Facebook’s “onerous terms.”

Ultimately, Ping’s limited usefulness undercuts much of the network’s potential. Given iTunes’ ubiquity and the fact that Ping is thoroughly integrated into the program, the service already has a massive user base. There’s a lot of interesting functionality within Ping, but without a way to easily add friends and build the social aspect of the network, it can’t help but feel like a bit of a letdown for now.

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In the past week I’ve met with two different sides of Samsung, one division that handles mobile devices and one that makes notebooks. If you asked me a couple of years ago which part of the company would be bringing the company’s first tablet to market, I’d bet on the PC guys, not the ones who sell phones. But times have changed. In the new-media tablet category, led by Apple, you need mobile DNA. And that means touch-friendly interfaces, long battery life delivered by ARM-based processors, and (in more and more cases) mobile broadband connectivity. The new Galaxy Tab brings all of the above to the table(t) and more, and when it launches later this fall it will be the first bona fide contender to the mighty iPad.

While such PC makers as Archos, ASUS, Dell, MSI, and others have either launched Android tablets or will be bringing theirs to market soon, Samsung Mobile has put together the most compelling model yet. This 7-inch device runs Android 2.2, which means it will support Flash, but so will pretty much everything else that hits the market this holiday. What makes the Galaxy Tab different is that Samsung has custom-designed bundled applications such as the calendar and e-mail, optimizing them for a larger screen. Plus, this gadget will provide access to the Android Market for downloading third-party apps. During our briefing Samsung said that some developers would be pouring more resources into supersizing their apps for bigger displays, but others will wait to see how the market develops.

Samsung isn’t waiting when it comes to delivering entertainment. As Best Buy’s vice president of computing told us during a recent interview, the retailer simply won’t sell a slate that lacks a rich ecosystem of content behind it. And it seems that the Galaxy Tab passes the retailer’s litmus test, because it will tie into the Media Hub store for downloading movies and TV shows. The company explained that only by controlling both the hardware and software was it able to offer progressive downloads, which means you can start watching flicks almost as soon as your purchase is made. Other content partners include Kobo (for ebooks) and Zinio (for magazines).

As for the hardware, there’s something uniquely compelling about a 7-inch tablet. When held in landscape mode, for example, it’s easier to type quickly on the Galaxy Tab than on the iPad. And unlike Apple’s hot-selling device, this one will have two cameras—one 3.2-megapixel sensor on the back for taking photos and another 1.3-MP up front for video calls. Battery life is expected to be 7 hours, which is 3 hours less than the iPad, but pretty strong considering this machine’s smaller size. While the display itself doesn’t use AMOLED technology like the Galaxy S Series phones, the 1024 x 600-pixel screen still looks plenty bright and sharp.

All of these ingredients add up to a formidable iPad foe, but there are also a lot of unanswered questions about the Galaxy Tab. How much will it cost, and will consumers expect to pay less because of its smaller display? Also, can Samsung do as good a job as Apple demonstrating how its tablets and other products work well together? For instance, Steve Jobs wowed the crowd at Apple’s special eventВ  this week, when he streamed a movie purchased on the iPad (running the upcoming iPad 4.2 OS) directly to the new Apple TV using a feature called AirPlay. Samsung has a similar technology called AllShare, but it’s not quite as seamless.

To be honest, I was getting a little bored of the parade of crappy tablets trying to steal the iPad’s thunder. The Galaxy Tab is different. And while the app selection still needs some shoring up, it looks pretty impressive overall. If other slate makers are smart, they’ll follow Samsung’s lead.

Editor-in-chief Mark Spoonauer directs LAPTOP’s online and print editorial content and has been covering mobile and wireless technology for over a decade. Each week Mark’s SpoonFed column provides his insights and analysis of the biggest mobile trends and news. You can also follow him on Twitter.

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Laptop shoppers no longer need to be faced with the unenviable choice of long battery life or powerful graphics. Notebooks with Nvidia’s Optimus technology attempt to deliver the best of both worlds by seamlessly switching between two GPUs—one discrete, one integrated–to give you plenty of oomph for playing the latest titles as well as close to all-day endurance. And unlike previous switchable graphics laptops, there’s no need to flick a switch or deal with screen flicker. It all happens automatically.

Here are our top five Optimus notebooks in a range of sizes, from $500 to $1,300.